UK Inquirer picks up the story

DNS zone transfers ruled illegal.

Money quote:

What worried the judge was if she didn't convict Ritz of being a hacker, then the computer crime laws in the Land of the Free would be turned on their head.

It was much tidier to make it a crime to access a server on the internet that is set up to provide that public info. It seems that no one explained to the judge what the Internet was.